Tom Witzky is a lineman for a utility company. He's a typical working-class guy who lives in Chicago with his pregnant wife Maggie and his son Jake. Tom likes to hang out with his friends, who include Frank McCarthy and Harry Damon. One night at a party, Tom ends up in a discussion with Maggie's sister Lisa, who believes in psychic communication and the power of hypnosis. Tom challenges Lisa to hypnotize him, and she plants in him a post-hypnotic suggestion to be more open-minded...with results that were never, ever expected. That night, he sees images of violence and the ghost of Samantha Kozac, a young woman who disappeared from the neighborhood some time ago, and is now believed to be dead. Jake also sees Samantha's ghost, but while Jake is calm about it, Tom always seems angry that the images won't stop coming. Jake's baby-sitter Debbie Kozac is Samantha's sister, who is still distraught because of Samantha's disappearance. When Debbie discovers that Jake has been talking to Samantha's ghost, Debbie becomes frantic, and she thinks Jake may know where Samantha is. Determined to figure out what's going on, Tom begins a hunt for Samantha's body, and it's a hunt that threatens to kill Tom, Maggie, and Jake, because there is someone who does not want Samantha's body to be found.

Frank McCarthy: They were going to kill you in cold blood. I couldn't let that happen. Not here. This is a decent neighborhood!

Tom Witzky: I never wanted to be famous. I just never expected to be so... Maggie Witzky: What? Tom Witzky: I don't know, ordinary.

Lisa: It doesn't surprise me that there's another woman. Of course, the fact that she's dead gives one pause.

Maggie Witzky: Look what I'm not cleaning up.

Sheila: [to her husband after he stares at a group of girls] Why don't you just lick 'em when they walk by?

Movie Trivia:

The hypnosis sequence in which Tom (Kevin Bacon) is hypnotized for the first time follows actual hypnosis techniques used by professional hypnotists. In order to ensure that the audience hasn't been put to sleep (and some susceptible people have been), there's a musical accent at the close of the sequence to wake everyone up.

On the couch, the babysitter reads "The Shrinking Man" by Richard Matheson, author of "A Stir of Echoes", the basis for this film.

Jake Witzky watches The Mummy's Shroud (1967) on TV when his mother tells him to turn it off. Night of the Living Dead (1968) then appears on every channel as he attempts to turn off the TV.

The Writers Guild of America denied Andrew Kevin Walker a screenplay credit for his script-doctoring work on this film, so he receives "special thanks" in the end credits.

During the hypnosis session, Kevin Bacon is told to imagine a movie theatre where everything is painted black (walls, chairs, everything but the screen). Later, during the rape scene, a stereo plays the Rolling Stones song "Paint it Black", performed by Gob.